Whole Foods Market, the US-based natural and organic retailer, has seen costs linked to its recent acquisition of rival Wild Oats Markets hit full-year profits.
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Whole Foods saw operating income fall almost 7% in the 12 months to the end of September.
The retailer said it had paid around $596m for Wild Oats, including $34m in costs linked to the acquisition. Whole Foods won a tense legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission for the right to buy Wild Oats. The US anti-trust body had sought to block the deal on competition grounds.
Nevertheless, Whole Foods was upbeat about its prospects. It said annual sales had risen 5.8% – on an identical store basis – to $6.6bn.
“We are very excited about the progress of our integration of Wild Oats and the healthy increase in sales growth we are seeing at the Wild Oats stores from 3.9% in Q4 to 6.6% quarter to date,” said Whole Foods chairman and CEO John Mackey.
“We expect these stores, along with our new stores, to drive strong sales this year and strong comparable store sales growth in fiscal year 2009 and beyond.”
